One in Four Outside Directors of Top 100 Companies Were Women Last Year... Growth Rate Slows Down

Unico Search Analyzes Status of Outside Directors in Top 100 Companies
As of Last Year’s Third Quarter, Female Directors Account for 24.2%
Steady Annual Increase, but Growth Rate Slows
Most Companies Do Not Exceed the Legal Minimum of One Female Director
"Systematic Expansion and Management of Director Candidate Pool Needed"

Last year, among outside directors active in Korea's top 100 companies, one in four was a woman, but the growth rate has slowed down.

Global headhunting specialist company 'Unico Search' announced on the 22nd that an analysis of the status of outside directors in the top 100 listed companies by sales as of last year showed this result.

As of the third quarter of last year, the total number of outside directors in the top 100 companies was 454, of which 110 were women, accounting for 24.2%. The number of female outside directors in the top 100 companies steadily increased from 35 (7.9%) in 2020, 67 (15%) in 2021, 94 (21%) in 2022, to 107 (23.7%) in 2023, but the rate of increase somewhat slowed. As of last year, 90 companies among the top 100 had at least one female outside director. This number rose from 30 companies in 2020, 60 in 2021, 82 in 2022, to 88 in 2023.

Unico Search analyzed that many large companies only meet the minimum number of female executive directors required by law, so the growth of female executive directors has reached a limit. Since August 2022, a law has been enforced requiring companies with assets exceeding 2 trillion won to compose their boards without filling them with only one gender. According to this law, companies must include at least one female executive director, whether inside or outside director, but most companies did not appoint more than one female director.

In fact, among the top 100 companies last year, 70 had only the legally required minimum of one female outside director on their boards. The growth rate of female outside directors was over 5 percentage points (P) year-on-year in 2021 and 2022, but dropped to the 2%P range in 2023 and further decreased to 0.5%P last year. Including inside directors, the total number of women active on boards in the top 100 companies was 120 (15.7%) as of last year, including 10 inside directors.

Jung Kyung-hee, Executive Director of Unico Search, emphasized, "To build transparent and trusted governance, it is necessary to systematically expand and manage the pool of female candidates with experience and expertise across various industries and roles so that women can grow as outside directors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.